Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE GROUND SQUIRREL, by PAUL HAMILTON HAYNE Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: Bless us, and save us! What's here Last Line: Or in less than no time, how we'd rue it! Subject(s): Perpetual Motion; Squirrels | ||||||||
BLESS us, and save us! What's here? Pop! At a bound, A tiny brown creature, grotesque in his grace, Is sitting before us, and washing his face With his little fat paws overlapping; Where does he hail from? Where? Why, there, Underground, From a nook just as cosy, And tranquil, and dozy, As e'er wooed to sybarite napping (But none ever caught him a-napping). "Don't you see his soft burrow so quaint, lad! and queer?" Gone! like the flash of a gun! This oddest of chaps, Mercurial, Disappears Head and ears! Then, sly as a fox, Swift as Jack in his box, Pops up boldly again! What does he mean by this frisking about, Now up and now down, and now in and now out, And all done quicker than winking? What does it mean? Why, 'tis plain, fun! Only fun! or, perhaps, The pert little rascal's been drinking? There's a cider press yonder all day on the run! Capture him! no, we won't do it, Or, be sure in due time we would rue it! Such a piece of perpetual motion, Full of bother And pother, Would make paralytic old Bridget A fidget. So you see (to my notion), Better leave our downy Diminutive browny Alone near his "diggings"; Ever free to pursue, Rush round, and renew His loved vaulting Unhalting, His whirling, And curling, And twirling, And swirling, And his ways, on the whole, So unsteady! 'Pon my soul, Having gazed Quite amazed, On each wonderful antic And summersault frantic, For just a bare minute, My head, it feels whizzing; My eyesight's grown dizzy; And both legs, unstable As a ghost's tipping table, Seem waltzing, already! Capture him! no, we won't do it, Or in less than no time, how we'd rue it! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE CIRCUS IN THE TREES by ANDREW HUDGINS SQUIRRELS MATING by JOHN UPDIKE HOW MUCH A SQUIRREL by LARRY EIGNER ON A SQUIRREL CROSSING THE ROAD IN AUTUMN, IN NEW ENGLAND by RICHARD GHORMLEY EBERHART FABLE: THE MOUNTAIN AND THE SQUIRREL by RALPH WALDO EMERSON TO A SQUIRREL AT KYLE-NA-NO by WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS THE SQUIRREL by FRANCES STACY KEELY A STORM IN THE DISTANCE (AMONG THE GEORGIAN HILLS) by PAUL HAMILTON HAYNE |
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